Contemporary Arguments for Austerity

Abstract

The concept of austerity was revived by a group of Italian graduates at Bocconi University in Milan. According to Mark Blyth, author of a book on the history of austerity, the “modern argument for austerity” was developed by this group of scholars, of which the two most prominent members is Alberto Alesina (Harvard University, former Bocconi graduate), the author of the following article. In Blyth’s words, “the importance of Alesina and his collaborators’ work in defining and defending the modern policy case for austerity cannot be overestimated” as reported by Blyth (Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, p. 167).